Grounds of Faith

02/19/2026

02/11/2026

My oldest son has a welding business and takes all kinds of jobs.. small and large. If you need anything done, please reach out to him. Look at his page. There is even a picture of some handrails he built and installed on the lake. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DDe5umYkb/?mibextid=wwXIfr

12/07/2025

Let me turn your holiday photos into keepsake ornaments! Message me today!

11/04/2025

Christmas ornaments make great gifts! Many are only $5 each! Many styles to choose from! Turn those phone snapped photos into a keepsake! Message me today! I can also ship!

10/19/2025

This Christmas season, I will be offering customized gift items! Coffee mugs, Tumblers, ornaments, keychains, coasters, and more! Message me for details! Prices begin at $5 for several items!

09/07/2025

Farmer Patrick preaching… God will be with you and mold you into something great!

Isaiah 43:2-4 God will be with you whenever you go through trials… but he will strengthen you and help you to become stronger and greater in Him!

12/30/2024

🐄🐑🐣 Keep It 🐣🐑🐄
By: Natosha Black Foster

You have always heard the saying, if you don’t use it you will lose it. This is very true. After realizing this on the farm, I see how much truth there is to this phrase. In my opinion, it had to have been a farmer who coined that phrase.
You see, when you have a dairy cow, you must milk the cow on a regular basis, or she will dry up and quit producing milk. Let me tell you…. Our cows get moody when we don’t milk them too. When it is time to dry them off, which is a must at least two months prior to them calving, they start fussing at us… their moo’s can be heard from the entire neighborhood I imagine. We even had a neighbor call asking if something was wrong once because of the commotion one of our cows, Harper, was causing. She was mad! She didn’t understand why we stopped milking her. To her, she was no longer needed, and her milk slowly dried up… until the calf was born.
This is also true for vegetation. Cucumbers, tomatoes, and even blueberries are all the same way. Of course, there is a time frame for their production, but it can be shortened if the fruit is not picked in a timely manner, and consistently while it is being produced. They will dry up and stop producing sooner than anticipated and earlier than the season should end if you are not tending to them and picking their fruit.
Relationships are the same way as cows and fruit. There is much to learn from the farm! A relationship, whether it is friendship, or a marriage, must be tended to thrive. If one person is doing all the giving (hence the producing of fruit or milk), and the other person is not tending, then the relationship will dry up.
So often relationships end because of miscommunication or the lack thereof. Do you desire to keep that relationship you have with one another in good health? Then nurture it. Call the person, not just a text. Have lunch or dinner dates. Plan to spend time with that person. This goes for spending time with God too.
If it is a spouse, then plan a date night at least once a month. A date night doesn’t have to be out of the house… cook a finger food dinner and enjoy a movie in the living room and pretend you are at the movies together. Make some popcorn. Most importantly turn off the electronic devices and focus on the quality time with your companion.
If it is a friend, then make sure to plan a lunch date or shopping date. Call them at least twice a month. I understand life is busy, but life is not a guarantee and time is just borrowed.
May you take a lesson from the farm and apply it to your life. Don’t neglect your relationships. Don’t let them dry up. Nurture and be attentive to those you love. Enjoy life with them and let them know they are needed. God bless, from my little homestead farm.

12/27/2024

🍑🥕🫑You get what you sow!🌽🧅🫛
🍓🍉🍊By Natosha Black Foster🥒🌶️🫐

There is more to the traditional saying of you reap what you sow. While working on our small homestead farm, I have learned that not only do the plants we put in the ground need our attention and need us to work for them but making sure they have the necessary nutrients they need and the water they need, but animals, home, and even relationships need this same attention.
For a lamb to grow up and be strong and healthy, it needs its mama. If something happens to its mama, then you become the mama (or daddy). You must bottle feed it. It will require a great amount of dedication to ensure the lamb will thrive and grow until maturity. If you neglect it, don’t feed it what is needed, pay close attention to every tiny thing that seems off, then it most likely will pass away.
This is the same concept in our homes. If you leave something out to rot and decay on the counter, say a piece of fruit, then eventually it will attract flies. The next problem you will have is maggots running amuck on your counter. You will also have flies all over your home. The counter where the fruit is decaying will begin decomposing your counter. This is why you must clean your home on a regular basis. Do not neglect the place you live. Your home is where you have most of your treasured memories of things that have happened.
A relationship with your spouse is the same way. You will get what you sow. The work doesn’t just stop at the moment you plant the seed. It doesn’t stop when you get married. The work must continue. Continue to nurture your spouse. Continue to do those things you did before you married. Love is an action word. You can say “I love you” a million times, but if there are never any actions to prove your love then what does that say? It is empty words.
Just as you would pay close attention to detail to those animals and vegetation you want to thrive and succeed, you need to do so to your spouse. Pay attention to signs of depression, loneliness, and anger. Remind your spouse how much you love them. A simple meaningful hug daily letting them know you missed them can mean so much. You can also do little things to show you care. Help around the house, cook their favorite dish, watch a movie together (really watch, not just fall asleep or play on your phone), play a game together, or just sit on the front porch and enjoy nature and simple conversations without electronic devices distracting you from one another.
Life is full of ups and downs, but when you have your loved one with you, you can go through anything with that person and God by your side. In order for you and your spouse to withstand trials though, you must have a nurtured relationship. A frail plant will blow away in the storm, but a strong relationship will withstand and come out stronger after a storm. What will you choose to do? Plant and forget or continue nurturing your relationship for a great harvest of joy, peace, happiness, and a life full of prosperity!

12/26/2024

Homesteading: Reconnecting the Past to the Future
Written by: Natosha Black Foster

It was around 40 years ago that I remember helping pick strawberries with my great grandmother in her huge garden. I am sure I was eating my fair share of them too. I can imagine her making some delicious strawberry preserves out of them, as I have taught myself to do today. I also recall riding with my daddy around this same time while he delivered sweet potatoes to the houses of customers who had orders from the family farm. The sweet potato farm is still alive and well today in Mississippi where I originally lived when I was born. I remember my daddy stopping around lunch time every day at the same lady’s home to deliver and she would have a kitchen knife ready for my daddy to peel and slice me a raw sweet potato to eat; I guess I was always hungry about that time. We still get sweet potatoes and store them through Spring eating on them in pies, as baked sweet potatoes, and occasionally I will try a new dish with them.
Today, I find myself longing for a connection to the past… to my grand parents and great grandparents… to my ancestors. In today's world, prices of everything seem to increase, especially food. I have blueberry bushes, peach trees, and apple trees on my homestead. I only must collect them and preserve them which saves me tons of money verses going to buy them. I freeze blueberries, make blueberry preserves, peach preserves, applesauce, and apple butter. I also dehydrate apple slices for future use to make apple pies or other dishes.
When it is time to plant the fruits and vegetables, it does take work, but the reward is great. This year, I bought a bag of gold potatoes on sale at the local grocery store. It sprouted eyes within two days. I preserved them until it was time to plant. From that $3 bag of potatoes, I now have 24 thriving gold potato plants. I can imagine the harvest we will get from them. There are ways to save money and feed your family for the entire year. It just takes a little hard work and dedication. My husband and our youngest son help with the planting and harvesting. I preserve everything. I am still learning, but most things are either canned, frozen, or dehydrated. My family helps with that too sometimes.
Homesteading is a lost tradition really. My grandparents, and yours too or your great grandparents passed away with so much knowledge that they could have passed on to us. Life seems to get busier as the years pass. More food is available on shelves. The thoughts of not being able to afford food or the unavailability of food become pushed out of our mind. Homesteading is a connection between the past and the present. It is where you recreate those traditions (even if you must learn them from scratch to pass down to your kids and grandkids) of preserving and saving and making the most of life around you. It is about living off the land that God created. It is about living as natural a life as possible.
Today you hear a lot of people talk about how it is important to learn a trade for work. It is equally important if not more important to learn the trade of homesteading. You need to know how to grow your own food. You need to know how to preserve your own food. You need to know how to cook your own food. Do you know how to raise chickens? Do you know how to milk a cow? I remember growing up there were tons of fresh eggs signs in people’s yards. It was almost as if you were driving around the Amish towns. They would also have cardboard signs or other signs showing they had extra fruits and vegetables to sell. These signs disappeared with the passing of a generation. A generation of people who had a strong work ethic. A generation who knew how to live happily off the land. We need to all go back to living a life of simplicity, that was not so simple, yet so rewarding. The simplicity of it is that family was more together than apart. Kids and parents alike spent less time on electronic devices and more time outside together work and playing. Spring is for planting seeds and growth. Summer and fall are for harvesting. A family sitting around enjoying a slice of watermelon they just picked in their garden…. You can’t get more American Homesteading than that! May you all cherish those who have gone before us and seek out to try to learn the skills they took with them and reconnect with the past and make it the future to help ensure our future generations will never be without food and will be able to connect with one another again without so much electronic devices taking our time away. Time is precious.